Can loader



April 14, 1970 MASATIQ Tsu-rsUw 3,505,777

CAN LOADER 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed June 1. 1967 5 MW A an N W m i 5 A ril 14, 197.0 "MASAT OTSUTSUMI 3,505,777

I CAN LQADER Filed June 1. 1967 4 Sheets-Sheet 2.

' INVENTOR. M45470 754/750/14/ ML M CAN LOADER Filed June 1, 1967 7 4 Sheets-Sheet 5 M M45470 Ea 4 BY 7 @K April 14, 1970 MA SATQ TSUTSUMI 3,505,777

CAN LOADER Filed June 1, 19 67 v I 4 Sheets-Sheet 4.

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INVENTOR. M45470 75075MW/ United States Patent 3,505,777 CAN LOADER Masato Tsutsumi, Kahului, Maui, Hawaii, assignor to Maui Pineapple Company, Ltd., Kahului, Maui, Hawaii, a corporation of Hawaii Filed June 1, 1967, Ser. No. 642,918 Int. Cl. B651) 35/32, /10, 33/06 US. Cl. 53-168 1 Claim ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A machine particularly intended to load pineapple slices into cans wherein a right angle tube receives plneapple slices sharing a horizontal axis and guides the slices through a 90 arc until they share a vertical axis. A gage sleeve and plate then transfers a preselected stack of pineapple slices to a dispensing aperture through which they fall by gravity into a can.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION A search of the prior art has developed the following patents: Hoyt, 1,565,648; Taylor, 2,034,160; Peters, 2,- 672,991; De Back et al., 2,765,829; McFaull, Jr., 2,856,- 097; Bainbridge et al., 3,151,644; and Farmer, 3,244,209.

SUMMARY This invention is directed to can loaders, more particularly to machine for loading sliced pineapple into a can.

A primary object of the invention is to cause the transfer of a row of pineapple slices defining a common horizontal axis into a column of slices defining a vertical axis; the slices being received in a measuring sleeve and then transported for deposit in a can.

A further object of this invention is to provide a machine utilizing a simple guide tube defining a 90 arc which insures a smooth transition of each slice through a 90 are without damage thereto.

A still further object is to provide on the whole a novelly arranged machine which facilitates previous inspection of the sliced pineapple.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIGURE 1 is a fragmentary plan view of the pineapp e loader.

FIGURE 2 is a sectional view thereof taken through 2-2 of FIGURE 3.

FIGURE 3 is a side view thereof with the pineapple supplying conveyor shown fragmentarily.

FIGURE 4 is an enlarged sectional view taken through 44 of FIGURE 1.

FIGURE 5 is an enlarged sectional view taken through 55 of FIGURE 4.

SPECIFICATION The can loader includes a base frame comprising a base plate 11 and posts 12. Other posts 13 extend upwardly from the base plate 11 and support a top plate 14.

An indexing table 15 is mounted on the base p ate 11 and includes a drive unit 16 which intermittently turns an indexing member 17 the positions of which are determined by stop faces engaged by a reciprocable stop pin 19. The indexing table is conventional. A shaft 20 extends upwardly from the indexing table through the top plate 14 and its upper end is guided by a top bearing 21.

Depending from the top plate 14 is a vertical guide tube 22 having a liner 23 therein which is interchangeable to accommodate pineapple slices of different diameter.

Patented Apr. 14, 1970 "ice Supported by the top plate 14 is an elbow tube 24 having a vertical discharge end 25 disposed in alignment with the liner 23 and a horizontally extending entrance end 26. The underside of the entrance end is slotted as indicated by 27 to clear the discharge end of a conveyor belt 28 and its pulley 29. The conveyor belt is provided with side supports 30 so as to support pineapple slices 31 in mutual contacting relation and defining a horizontal axls.

The conveyor pulley 29 is mounted on a shaft 32 which is rotated by a drive unit 33 such as a pulley or chain drive unit. The drive unit in turn is operated by a motor 34.

Mounted under the top plate 14 is a turntable 35 comprising an upper plate 36 and a lower plate 37 connected to a common hub 38 which in turn is secured to the vertical shaft 20. The turntable is provided with a set of sleeves 39 open at their upper and lower ends and axially dimensioned to receive a predetermined number of pineapple slices 31. Each sleeve is adapted to be indexed into alignment with the liner 23 so that pineapple slices may be discharged from the liner 23 into the corresponding sleeve 39. The upper end of each sleeve is provided with a tapered entrance 40.

A gage plate 41 is supported immediately under the sleeves 39 from the post 13. The gage plate is provided with a discharge aperture 42.

Supported from the post 13 below the gage plate 41 is a can supporting plate 43 and, supported from the shaft 20 between the plates 41 and 43, is a can advancing wheel 44. Extending radia ly toward the can supporting plate 43 is a can supply means 45 having a bottom rail 46 and side rails 47.

Extending arcuately from one of the side rails 47 is a semicircular retainer rail 48 which is concentric with the axis of the shaft 20. The can supporting plate 43 is notched to receive a tangential can discharge belt 49 bordered by a pair of side rails 50 one of which it tangential to the retainer rail 48. v

A sensing switch 51 is disposed above the conveyor belt 28 to sense the presence of pineapple slices at the discharge end of the conveyor belt. Similarly, a can sensing switch 52 is provided at the end of the can supply means 45 preceding the can supporting plate 43.

Operation of the can loader is as follows: Pineapple slices are sorted and placed in contiguous relation on the conveyor belt 28. The pineapple slices though free of excess pineapple juice, have sufliciently wet surfaces that they stick to each other so that they are readily maintained as a unit and when on the conveyor define a horizontal axis. The pineapple slices on entering the elbow tube 24 tend to separate at the radially outer sides but upon reaching the vertical discharge end of the elbow tube are rejoined and tend to adhere to each other in a vertical column, filling the liner 23 and resting on the gage plate 41, when a sleeve 39 is in alignment with the liner, or on the top plate 36, when the sleeves 39 are out of registry.

When the turntable 35 is indexed from the position shown at the right hand side of FIGURE 4 to the position at the left hand .side thereof, the stack of pineapple slices in the liner remains fixed while theselected slices contained in the sleeve 39 move laterally from under the liner. When the next sleeve aligns with the liner, the vertical stack of pineapple slices drops from the surface of the plate 36 to the surface of the gage plate 41. Simultaneously with this operation, the preceding sleeve 39 brings its contents of pineapple slices into alignment with the discharge aperture 42.

Operating in synchronism with the movement of the pineapple slices, the can advancing wheel 44 brings cans 53 in sequence under the discharge aperture 42, so that the contents of the corresponding sleeve is deposited in the can. Thereafter, the loaded cans are moved on to the discharge belt 49.

The adhesiveness of the pineapple juice causes the group of pineapple slices contained in the liner 23 and later contained in the sleeves 39 to act in each case as a unit, so that no tumbling or separation of the slices occurs. The sensing switches 51 and 52 are electrically connected in a conventional manner to the indexing table to stop the operation if the supply of pineapple slices or cans is depleted.

Having fully described my invention, it is to be understood that I am not to be limited to the details herein set forth, but that my invention is of the full scope of the appended claim.

I claim:

1. An apparaus for loading sliced pineapple into cans, comprising: a frame structure including a top plate, a gage plate and a can supporting plate; an indexing means including a pineapple transporting disk above said gage plate and a can advancing disk above said can supporting plate; an elbow tube having a vertical lower end mounted in and extending below said top plate and a horizontal upper end extending laterally with respect to said top plate; means for feeding pineapple slices along a horizontal axis into the upper end of said elbow tube for movement therethrough into a vertical column; said gage plate positioned to support said column and having a discharge aperture otfset from said column; said pineapple transporting disk including a ring of sleeves movable in sequence into registry with said column to permit said column to descend to said gage plate, said sleeves being vertically dimensioned to select a predetermined number of pineapple slices for transport from said column to said aperture; and means for feeding cans to said advancing disk for movement thereby into registry with said aperture to receive said selected pineapple slices.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,430,124 9/ 1922 Stanley 146-6 1,879,989 9/1932 Morse 53123 X 1,901,715 3/1933 Young 53168 2,065,975 12/ 1936 Meyer-Jagenberg 93--93 2,092,763 9/ 1937 LeFrank 53-123 X 2,092,773 9/ 1937 Nordquist 53123 2,092,786 9/ 1937 Taylor 53-23 2,489,765 11/ 1949 Emerson 53254 X 3,136,103 6/1964 Farmer 53--123 FOREIGN PATENTS 495,264 8/1953 Canada.

WAYNE A. MORSE, JR., Primary Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 

